Chapter 5: Quite the Pleasant Surprise

Right after the explosion happened, Nikki and Nights looked at each other with the same worried and confused expression.

*Sigh.* "I guess we'll have to investigate that as well," Nights said, clearly exhausted with the recent events that took place.

Nikki simply nodded, obviously just as confused and tired of today's events. "You think that mist is responsible for the explosion too?" She asked.

"I don't know," Nights sighed. "With everything that's been going on lately, just about ANYTHING can happen next." This was especially true considering how the day had started with the literal loss of their manhood.

With that said, the two hedgehogs ran for the front exit of the mall, quickly making their way through the mostly dissipated crowds.

(Meanwhile with Amy and Nebula)

"Hey the lights are back" said Amy. Nebula smiled.

"See nothing to worry about" said Nebula. Then they heard the explosion outside the mall.

"What the heck is that!?" Amy said in a worried tone.

"I don't know but we must find out" said Nebula as Amy nodded. She picked up Amy in bridal style, surrounded themselves in her aura, and flew away to find the exit.

After they exited, they both saw smoke coming from what seemed to be a two mile distance further down the city. Feeling the need to investigate they flew as quickly as they could to check out what's going on, flying over traffic and other small buildings. As they traveled further into the city the buildings got taller and the rising smoke got bigger. As they arrived to the source of the smoke they landed and noticed that one of the taller buildings had a huge crater on one of its sides at the base. The crater had a fair amount of rubble on the floor and was still smoldering. Inside and around the building, Mobians were leaving the site in a hurry, clearly scared but not visibly injured. The explosion was relatively small and was nothing that most Mobians couldn't handle and apparently hit an area that wasn't too busy, but that doesn't mean that they still weren't spooked.

As Amy and Nebula approached the site they heard an all too familiar laughter.

"OH HO HO HO HO! Well, well, well, the girlfriends of those pesky hedgehogs again. I wasn't really expecting you in particular, but this is still quite the pleasant surprise," said the voice.

"Eggman" Growled Amy and Nebula in unison. Indeed it was him, hovering over the scene with his iconic egg-mobile thingy. Below him were to spiky figures standing together, silhouetted behind a cloud of smoke.

"What are you up to Eggman?" Amy growled, summoning her large hammer from seemingly out of nowhere (maybe it shrinks or grows at will?). Nebula got into a fighting stance, waiting for Eggman to launch an attack. He simply grinned and quietly laughed.

"Oh, how polite of you to ask," he stated rather nonchalantly. "You see, as of recently, I have been working on two rather special projects ever since your boyfriends left me stranded in a dolphin infested ocean last month. Boy wasn't THAT a crazy fight. Anyway, since then I've been coming up with a new way to greet them for our next little get together. As you may have guessed, I have finally finished and I was so excited I simply HAD to show them. But how will I ever grab their attention so quickly?" He stated in his usual over-the-top expressive manner.

After he said this, he pointed the girls attention below him to where the smoke was rising. Out from the smoldering heap, the two figures emerged and revealed a familiar yet altogether menacing sight for the two girls.

To the left of them was yet another version of Metal Sonic, but with some obvious improvements. He was taller and somewhat resembled the way he looked when Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails defeated him at the Egg Fleet. However, he was now slightly leaner and had his "quills" more curved to the back like Sonics. He still had the white stripes decorating his body, arms, and "hair" and they seemed to be pointing to the center of his chest, where there was a glowing green light that seemed to be his power source. His large eyes were now completely growing red with no irises or pupils to speak of. There was no mouth decorating his face, but instead, a triangular visor that covered where his jaw was supposed to be. His hands and arms were smooth and curved with his forearms ending with large, curved spikes protruding from his elbows, while his feet were large triangular mock-ups of Sonic's sneakers. Overall, this new Metal Sonic seemed to be much sleeker and more aerodynamic than his previous incarnations.

To their right, was a robotic version of Shadow, and he already looked more threatening than the already menacing new Metal Sonic. While the New Metal Sonic was built to be quick and aerodynamic, this Metal Shadow was clearly the powerhouse of the two. He had spikes on his hair, elbows, and back, just like Metal Sonic, but they were much more jagged, triangular, and spiky. His fingertips were also more spiked, making them resemble claws and his feet were more blocky, clearly as a representation of Shadows bulky rocket shoes. The stripes that adorned his hair, arms, and legs were red, but the stripes on the upper part of his chest were white and were pointing to a glowing, yellow power source. The lower part of his face was covered by a much sharper version of Metal Sonic's visor, while his eyes were completely orange. Though he still looked capable of high speeds, he was still taller, bigger, spikier, and bulkier than Metal Sonic and seemed to be equipped with a large arsenal of hidden weapons.

Amy and Nebula were completely awestruck, bewildered by the fact that their boyfriends images could be warped into such monstrous looking machines. Nebula was the first to break out her trance and speak up. "Do you honestly think that Shadow would lose to that lame, wannabe clone?! Shadow is more of a man than that piece of trash could ever be!" She was clearly flustered by the appearance of this new weapon.

"Oh! You don't like it? Well you at least shouldn't be so rude!" Eggman stated with a false tone of hurt. "I would think that Shadow would be flattered that I made such a worthy copy of him. He's certainly more gracious than that blasted Sonic!"

At the mention of Sonics name, Amy broke out of her trance, realizing the severity of the current situation. 'That metal knockoff is ALWAYS giving Sonic trouble. Each time it only gets worse and worse. There's no way I'll let that THING get close to him again!' As she finished her train of thought, a more determined look came across Amy's face as she gripped her hammer harder.

Eggman noticed Amy's new expression and smiled to himself. "Metal Sonic! Metal Shadow! Can you please be so kind and grab those girls? Our guests should be arriving soon."

At this command, both of the robots eyes shone brightly as they charged forward with the propellers on their backs and their rocket shoes. Metal Sonic charged at Amy with mind boggling speed. She only had half a second to block a kick by holding her hammer out in front of her. The strength of the kick knocked her back a little, but she still held her ground.

Metal Shadow charged toward Nebula in a similar fashion, but she made more of an effort to dodge its attacks rather than take any force of its blows. As the large heap of metal careened towards her, Nebula jumped back, successfully dodging Metal Shadows massive punch. She continued to do this each time Metal Shadow attempted to punch or kick her, gaining distance from their original battleground. As she hopped backwards, she let out large energy blasts from her fists which Metal Shadow simply deflected with his massive arms.

Seeing that her blasts weren't having much of an effect on her opponents defenses, she decide to try a more up-close and personal tactic. As Metal Shadow zoomed in for another punch, Nebula made another tactical dodge, but rather than jumping back to gain some distance, she instead ducked below the punch and gave an uppercut to the robots power source on its chest. Thanks to her super strength, her punch sent Metal Shadow skidding back a few feet, but as soon as it came to a stop, it simply looked back up at her and proceeded to march towards her once again, seeming to have shrugged off her massive punch. Meanwhile, Nebula was left with a throbbing fist, turning red from having done a full scale punch to a sharp metallic body.

"Gah! What's that thing made of?!" Nebula hissed, holding her hand in pain.

"That's for me to know and none of your business," Eggman stated in a condescending voice. He was clearly entertained by the ongoing fight, not even slightly worried about the possibility of his robots losing. This only pissed Nebula off further as she went back on the defense, firing even larger energy blasts at Metal Shadow.

Amy wasn't having much luck on her fight either. New Metal Sonic was so fast that he left no openings for Amy to attack. Second after second Amy blocked its punches and kicks with her hammer, constantly being pushed back but not once losing her footing. As this unrelenting barrage continued, Amy strategized in her head for any possible way to take this robot out. 'If I can knock him off balance by using the force of his kicks against him, maybe then I'll have an opening. I gotta get the timing just right though.' Realizing that her plan must be flawlessly executed if it has any chance of working, she continued to defend herself, waiting for the perfect opportunity to counter.

After a few seconds had passed, Metal Sonic reeled one of his thin legs back for a particularly strong kick. Seeing her perfect opportunity to strike, Amy reeled her hammer back as quickly as possible and swung at the oncoming kick with all her strength. As Metal Sonics leg and Amy's hammer connected full-force, Amy felt a tremor go up her arms and down her back. Whatever that thing was made of, it was DEFINITELY tough, as Amy now felt a pained sensation tremble around her arms. However, despite the slight pain, her plan had actually worked.

Due to the force of the massive hammer, Metal Sonics kick had been knocked back, causing his balance to tip slightly. Amy swung her hammer again with whatever strength she could muster towards the robots chest. This blow sent Metal Sonic falling backwards, trying get itself back up. Taking no chances, Amy swung again at the robots head, sending him tumbling a few feet away.

"Yeah!" Amy shouted through her panting. "That'll teach you to mess with Sonic!" Summoning that kind of strength was no easy feat and she felt quite proud of having downed one of Sonics greatest enemies.

Her victory was cut short, however, when the blue heap of metal stood back up with hardly a dent on it. Though his eyes seemed to exhibit some static thanks to Amy's attack on its head, it quickly turned back to its deathly red stare, sending a chill down Amy's spine.

"OH HO HO HO!" Eggman laughed delightedly. "You only made him mad dearie."

Eggman wasn't kidding either. Realizing that Amy had only stepped up her game, Metal Sonic decided to approach her with a new battle tactic. Thanks to his incredible speed he could pull it off with great efficiency.

With this in mind, Metal Sonic dashed forward at full speed. Before Amy could bring her hammer down on his head, Metal Sonic circled around to her back, still at full speed, meaning Amy had missed her target entirely. Seeing what Metal Sonic had done, Amy turned around only to be greeted with a metallic hand wrapped around her face. Before Amy could even attempt to scream, Metal Sonic had thrown Amy hard across the concrete ground, dropping her hammer, and momentarily knocking her out.

Nebula had noticed this and only grew angrier in the middle of her fight with Metal Shadow. This whole time Nebula was trying to hit him with her energy blasts, but to no avail. That was because Metal Shadow, who had grown aware that Nebula had increased the power of her energy blasts, was circling around her at high speeds, making it difficult for her to aim at him. It didn't help that every time that Nebula was close to getting the perfect aim, Metal Shadow would begin to move around in random directions at a remarkable speed then continue to circle Nebula, once again throwing off her aim.

By this point, Metal Shadow was simply waiting for Nebula to tire out from using so much of her aura. Metal Shadow definitely had the advantage in this, seeing as how the energy source on his chest was practically infinite. And even though his speed didn't quite compare to Metal Sonic, he was still fast and maneuverable enough to be incredibly hard to shoot down.

After about a minute or two of doing this, Nebula had finally realized that there was no way she would hit him before she had lost a good chunk of energy. She needed a way to temporarily slow him down and she had herself an idea; unfortunately it involved getting close to that machine. There was no way she was punching that thing again, but if she could at least grab a hold of him, maybe she could find a way to incapacitate him enough to finally hit him with a finishing blow.

Seeing as how she had no other choice, Nebula had stopped emitting energy from her hands and went into her more traditional fighting stance. Naturally, Metal Shadow had assumed that she had run out of energy and stopped circling her. Standing in front of her, he had decided that she was finally too weak to fight and charged forward at her. However, what she did next was a move that Metal Shadow had not anticipated.

As the machine charged at her, Nebula threw all caution into the wind and jumped down at Meal Shadows legs. Confused at this unorthodox move, it was too late for Metal Shadow to notice that Nebula had wrapped her arms around his legs, basically meaning that he was unable to move. As soon as Nebula had grabbed the legs she instantly felt the sensation of cold and sharp metal pin itself against her frame. Ignoring this, she summoned her super strength and lifted the robot off the ground. She then spun him around before finally slamming him hard against the concrete ground. Seeing static come across Metal Shadows orange eyes, Nebula picked him up and slammed him again. Nebula continued this for two more times.

Now that his eyes seemed to be stuck on static, Nebula threw him away across a great distance. Landing in a massive heap, the robot tried to stand up again, forcing Nebula to position herself in front of him. Now that her opponent was no longer moving and had no defenses up, she decided now was her best chance to give an attack.

Nebula was now completely covered in her aura, with most of it concentrated at her hands. After a few seconds, Her hands were covered by two large spheres of light while the rest of her body still shone brightly. Metal Shadow had now lifted up his upper body, leaving his chest completely exposed. Taking aim, Nebula put both of her hands together and formed a single massive ball of light while the rest of her body stopped glowing. Focusing most of her energy into this single huge attack, she fired a massive ray of energy from the orb straight for the power source of her opponent.

However, Nebula failed to notice a single important detail that would ruin her almost perfect plan; at around the same time that Nebula had begun to focus her energy, Metal Shadow had begun to focus the energy that was emanating from his power source. By the time that Nebula had formed the orbs of energy around her hands, Metal Shadows chest had begun to shine more brightly. As he looked up, the only thing he could see was a large round light. His chest was now brimming with yellow energy, and seeing as how it was his only chance at defense, he released it as soon as Nebula had fired her beam.

The two blasts collided, being equal in power, and clashed for a few seconds. Nebula tried to put more energy into her attack, but after a short while, the beams exploded into a blinding light. Unable to see, Nebula shielded her eyes from the light. By the time the light had faded, Nebula had opened her eyes only to see Metal Shadow towering over her. He sprung his arm back and struck Nebula hard enough to send her flying in the same direction as where Amy had landed.

Nebula had taken a handful of serious beatings in her life, but that single punch REALLY hurt. That robot could give someone like Knuckles a serious run for his money. She had landed rather close to Amy which gave her the opportunity to heal herself with some of her remaining energy and transfer some to Amy. Amy was now fully awake and slightly panicked by the large bruise on Nebulas arm.

"Oh my gosh are you OK?!" Amy inquired.

"Yeah," Nebula winced. "It's nothing I can't handle." Truth be told, if Nebula had been any weaker, that punch could have easily broken her arm. It's a good thing she was tougher than most Mobians.

The two girls were now back to back, each facing their respective opponent. "We can't take them out one-on-one," Nebula stated. "We need to come up with a plan that can take them down together."

"Right," Amy confirmed. "I'm probably gonna need my hammer though if I'm going to be any good."

As the two girls discussed a battle strategy, the two robots were messaging each other through some sort of connection, unheard by either Nebula or Amy.

"The two targets are together within a close proximity," Metal Sonic stated in his high pitched electronic voice through his transmission. "Now would be an appropriate time to use one of our team tactics."

"Affirmative," Metal Shadow confirmed with his deep, garbled voice. "Proceed with Team Attack- Alpha."

At this statement, Metal Shadow raised his hand towards the two girls, his palm exposed. His palm then opened up and shot a projectile that landed at the feet of Nebula and Amy.

"It's a smoke grenade!" Nebula warned Amy.

The grenade then gave off a mini explosion and completely engulfed the girls in smoke. They were now coughing and completely blind to the world around them. The smoke grenade covered a surprisingly large radius and was, thus, difficult to escape from.

"Amy!" Nebula shouted. "We can't let this separate us! We need to stick together if we're gonna have any chance."

"That's exactly what I'm counting on," said a raspy metallic voice, much to the girls horror.

After Metal Shadow had launched his smoke grenade, Metal Sonic turned on his heat vision. Just as he had predicted, the two girls stood together, making it easier to take them both out at the same time. He hovered over to them at remarkable speed, grabbed both their heads with each of his hands, and smashed them together, knocking them out instantly. By the time the smoke cleared, both of the girls were on the ground, Metal Sonic towering over them.

AN: Sorry this chapter was so long. When my cousin suggested to have Amy and Nebula encounter Metal Sonic and Shadow first, I instantly planned this whole fight in my head. I didn't want to make them mere pushovers either; I'd like to think that they put up a pretty good fight before finally being outclassed by Metal Sonics unbelievable speed and Metal Shadow's invulnerability and hidden weapons. It only stands to reason that Sonic and Shadows girlfriends wouldn't go down without a fight so I put in this short but elaborate fight scene. And while I did keep Nebula's main powers, I decided to show that she is still capable of losing in an unprepared battle against an even stronger version of Shadow, showing that she really isn't perfect, but more of a respectably strong and capable character. Now you might be thinking, "Where the hell are Sonic and Shadow?" Well, stay tuned to find out.